KEY POINTS

• JAMB apologised for delaying the release of Friday’s UTME results, blaming it on the temporary absence of its Chief Executive.
• The board assured candidates that the results would be released before Sunday night and expressed regret over the inconvenience caused.
• Over 1.7 million candidates have taken the exam so far, with only minor issues reported in a small number of centres nationwide.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has issued an apology to candidates following a delay in the release of the latest batch of Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, results, promising that the results would be released before the end of Sunday.

The board had earlier assured candidates that results for those who sat the examination on Friday, April 17, 2026, would be available on Saturday. However, the delay triggered frustration among candidates, many of whom stayed up late in anticipation of their scores.

In a statement released on Sunday, JAMB’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, explained that the delay was caused by the temporary absence of the board’s Chief Executive, who was attending an official engagement.

He reassured candidates that the situation had been addressed and that the results would be released later in the day. The board also expressed regret to candidates who experienced inconvenience due to the delay and thanked them for their patience.

Batch of results follows follows the earlier release of scores for candidates

This batch of results follows the earlier release of scores for candidates who wrote the examination on Thursday, April 16, with over 600,000 results already published.

Candidates are advised to check their results via SMS by sending “UTMERESULT” to 55019 or 66019 using the phone number linked to their registration.

Meanwhile, JAMB Registrar, Ishaq Oloyede, had earlier stated during a monitoring visit to the University of Ibadan CBT centre that the examination process had largely been seamless.

According to him, only about 16 out of nearly 980 centres nationwide experienced minor issues, mostly related to power supply and technical glitches.

He added that more than 1.7 million candidates had successfully sat for the examination within three days, describing the overall exercise as “superb” and commending the support of academic officials across the country.